Key points:
During the pandemic, thousands of school systems used emergency relief aid to buy laptops, Chromebooks, and other digital devices for students to use in remote learning. When students returned to the classroom, these devices continued to support one-to-one computing initiatives, ensuring that every child had a digital tool for instruction.
Now, these devices are nearing the end of their life cycle, creating a key challenge for district IT leaders: How will they replace this aging equipment and continue to support digital learning without interruption–while no longer being able to rely on an influx of federal dollars?
Google and Vivacity, which provides turnkey Chromebook devices and support to K-12 schools, recently invited edtech leaders to a series of roundtable discussions at Google’s Chrome Experience Center in San Jose, California. During this event, the K-12 leaders in attendance discussed the hurdles they face in having to refresh thousands of student devices over the next few years.
Tim McNeese, director of information technology for the 48,000-student Williamson County Schools in Tennessee, described how his district had just begun piloting a one-to-one computing initiative with Chromebooks in one elementary, middle, and high school before the pandemic hit.
“If that worked, we were going to go back the next year and maybe do one full grade level at a time and just slowly bring it in,” he said. “Then COVID happened, and we all went remote.” The pandemic forced the district to accelerate its plans, and McNeese estimated they made about five years’ progress in a single year.
Now, like other edtech directors nationwide, McNeese is tasked with replacing all these aging machines. He’s trying to get the money to buy replacement devices added to the district’s general operating budget.
Yet this is difficult, McNeese acknowledged, because there isn’t a lot of flexibility within K-12 budgets. As he pointed out, nearly 90 percent of the budget is already committed to personnel. “It’s hard to do anything without cutting something that is salary related,” he noted.
Freddie Cox, chief technology officer for the nearby Knox County Schools in Tennessee, finds himself in a similar position. Cox is trying to figure out how to replace the devices for 60,000 students.
“My job for the past four to five years has been to advocate for a reliable refresh plan that is predictable and is in our general purpose budget,” he said. “I’m having conversations with finance [personnel] and the superintendent [about how] this is something that we have to continue. How do we do that?”
At least now, district leaders understand the value that having a digital device in every student’s hand brings to education, Cox observed. It’s just a question of finding the resources to continue with this type of instructional model.
“I don’t know that anybody disagrees it’s essential,” he said. “It’s just that somebody has to be beating the drum so that it gets into the budget.”
Strategies for sustainability
During these meetings, edtech leaders discussed their ideas for spreading out payments for new devices over time rather than taking on a huge capital expense all at once.
Under normal conditions, they would be able to refresh the devices for different groups of students in different years. But that’s harder to do when new devices need replacing all at once because they were purchased during the pandemic with the help of Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funding.
“We’re trying to find ways to spread out the cost of replacing [all these purchases] that happened at one time,” Cox said. “How do we now go back and even that out, so it’s a sustainable plan that we can replicate year over year?”
The challenge facing districts has some edtech leaders trying to extend the life cycle of devices and wondering how long they can defer replacement costs. But this strategy typically results in diminishing returns.
“We’ve been supporting student devices for long enough to realize there is a major increase in failure rates beyond four years,” said Eli Maloley, Vivacity’s chief executive.
District IT directors are also thinking about how they might strategically remove some devices from use. For instance, McNeese’s district might not replace the devices purchased for their very youngest students. “The preschool classrooms don’t really use them much now,” he explained.
Kelly Sain, chief technology officer for Thompson School District R2-J in Colorado, said she could see some district leaders choosing not to allow students to take home their devices any longer because they’re concerned about breakage. “Since we’re no longer getting any federal stimulus money, where are those hard decisions going to be made?” she asked.
While leasing is an option for spreading the payments for new devices over several years, some school boards try to avoid leases, McNeese said, noting: “When you start talking about leasing, then the comptroller gets involved, because there are strings attached to leasing that folks have their eye on.”
Cox is trying to sell his board on a model that treats student devices as a subscription-based service, complete with replacement devices and support. This concept is easier to understand and more palatable for board members, he explained: “Device-as-a-service has some interest, because it doesn’t trigger some of those concerns at the state comptroller’s office that a lease may have. We’re trying to treat [student devices] like electricity or the gas bill–as a fixed, predictable cost. This is what keeps a modern classroom running.”
Companies like Vivacity make this process easier. With Vivacity, districts can either purchase Chromebooks outright or procure them as a service that’s billed monthly. The company offers a platform called V Suite that combines warranty coverage, asset management, and repair training to further help districts manage their devices.
“District IT leaders are seeking a new breed of partner that can provide flexible terms and pricing while covering the device lifecycle through procurement, deployment, repairs, management, and disposal,” Maloley said. “Vivacity empowers K-12 technology teams by helping them decrease their total cost of ownership and increase their available time for strategic priorities.”
Not replacing the devices bought to support remote learning isn’t a viable option, summit participants agreed, as teaching and learning have changed dramatically since the pandemic began and technology is now a fundamental part of classroom instruction.
“We feel like we finally solved [some of our equity concerns] with ESSER funding,” said Amie Adams, IT supervisor for Colorado’s Jefferson County Public Schools. “If we can’t continue to do that, we’re going to create even more of a digital divide.”
